[10] The Nordic countries are considered Nordea's home market, having finalised the sales of their Polish bank in 2014, Baltic operations in 2019[11] and completed the exit from Russia in early 2022 following a 2019 decision to close the business there.

[13] Nordea has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, first as the Finnish arm of the Stockholm-based group and since 2017 as a financial holding company.

Nordbanken was formed in 1986 by a merger of two smaller private local banks, Uplandsbanken and Sundsvallsbanken, though it was the product of numerous original institutions.

[23] MeritaNordbanken agreed to buy Unidanmark, Denmark's second-largest bank, in early 2000 creating the Nordic region's biggest financial institution with €186 billion in assets.

[24] By end 2000, MeritaNordbanken had further merged with Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse of Norway, a process started in 1999 and changed its name to Nordea.

[29] In 2016, Luminor was formed by a merger of Nordea's and DNB's operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania creating the third largest Baltic regional bank with assets of €15 billion and a market share of 16.4%.

[11] Exit from the Russian, Baltic and Polish markets were part of Nordea's de-risking strategy, which also included reduced exposures to some sectors (e.g.

[42] Nordea bank loaned billions of euros to shipping companies that own vessels in secrecy jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Cyprus, Panama, BVI, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.

[44] As a consequence of the leaked documents, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) stated on 4 April 2016 that it had started an investigation into the conduct of Nordea.

[42] The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) pointed out that there are "serious deficiencies" in how Nordea monitors money laundering, and gave the bank two warnings.

[48] In 2013, Politiken, a Danish newspaper, revealed that Nordea's Copenhagen branch was instrumental in establishing approximately 100 offshore companies for Russian and other nationals, despite warnings about suspicious activities.

In 2024, the Danish authorities indicted Nordea for violating anti-money laundering laws by allowing $3.7 billion of suspicious transactions by the Russian clients.

[16] In March 2019, public service broadcasting company, Yle, aired a program that revealed money laundering allegations against Nordea.

[50] In July 2024, Nordea Bank was taken to court in Denmark over allegations of failing to prevent money laundering linked to Russian clients.

The charges stem from transactions worth €3.8 billion, where Nordea is accused of neglecting proper oversight and ignoring red flags.

[51][52] In August 2024, Nordea agreed to pay $35 million to settle a money-laundering investigation by the New York State Department of Financial Services, linked to the Panama Papers scandal.